Defias
by Commissar
Summary: The story of a Paladin's Adventure and Romance through the World of Warcraft.
1. Chapter 1

"**Defias"**

The night was cold, very cold, with few stars in the sky. The quiet that comes on nights like these was broken suddenly by the sound of a lone horse riding through the night. This horse's rider was a man, dressed in a dark cloak, who kept his horse riding at a fast gallop.

As he approached an abandoned farmhouse, he slowed his horse, and rode up to the door. Walking into the farmhouse, he glanced quickly around, looking for something or someone. When he found what he was looking for, he reached down onto the stone floor, and pulled a small lever that was carved into the stone.

Nothing appeared to happen, until from beneath a pile of hay, a woman garbed in black leather, and a blood red bandana emerged. "You're late" the woman said in a harsh, yet feminine voice. The man replied, "My apologies, but the People's Militia were everywhere, it was hard to come here without being seen." The woman's reply was harsh, "There are no excuses for being late, and you are about to meet with the man himself." She reached into her pack and pulled out a similar bandana and put it on his face. "There, now there will be no suspicion about your presence here, Paladin." The harshness in her voice towards the word Paladin made her hatred obvious.

They walked through the decaying barn; several times he almost tripped over fallen pieces of charred wood. They came to a staircase, and descended deep into the earth. Passing seemingly endless amounts of workers, all of which were carving out a massive labyrinth. "We call this the deadmines, the name comes from ill fated adventurers who decide to take on the might of the Defias." The woman remarked in a proud manner. The Paladin merely nodded his head and looked around.

All of a sudden, he was guided through a doorway and gazed his eyes upon a massive ship, which still appeared to be in construction, but looked ready to take on the fleet of the alliance any day. As if reading his mind, the woman announced, "This is our secret weapon, we've been working on it for years, and soon we will test its mettle against the betrayers of Stormwind." The Paladin remarked, "Yes, it is quite fearsome looking ship, but where is the Captain?" At this remark, a man appeared from the shadows and said, "Right behind you." The Paladin turned around, and laughed. After he stopped laughing, he smiled and said, "Van Cleef, friend, it has been too long." Van Cleef replied, "Same for you my friend, Rivendare."

The friends shook hands and just when Rivendare was about to open his mouth to say something, a man garbed in clothes similar to those of Rivendare's escort appeared out of nowhere and exclaimed, "Intruders sir, they have made it all the way to the smelting room!" Van Cleef's facial expression immediately changed from happiness to disgust. He screamed out, "Damn it!" He walked over to Rivendare's escort and whispered in her ear. He walked back over to Rivendare, touched him on the shoulder and said, "I'm sorry friend, but you have to leave, you are in danger." Rivendare replied, "Let me stay, I will help you fight off these intruders." Van Cleef shook his head and then sadly replied, "I have a feeling they will destroy us both." Rivendare opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off when he felt a dull object hit him in the back of his head, and then all went black.


	2. Chapter 2

Rivendare woke up with a tremendous pain in the back of his head. When he opened his eyes, he observed that he was under a blanket, and all around him were various boxes. It was a cart, being moved along by horses, which he could hear. Rivendare attempted to get up, but was stopped when the cart hit some sort of bump in the road, and he was sent sprawling backwards, falling down harshly on the sore on the back of his head. He yelled out in pain, numerous swears.

A familiar harsh and feminine voice called back, "You finally woke up, I thought I might have hit you too hard on the back of the head." Rivendare called back, "Thanks for being so considerate, now can you let me out of here?" She replied, "Not at the moment, we're going through some pretty unfriendly territory, so I'm being cautious." Rivendare asked, "What do you mean by unfriendly?" No reply came, and he took the hint that he needed to stay perfectly quiet.

As he lay in perfect silence, he heard a sound that made his stomach turn. Orcs. The deep guttural sound of their language was not difficult to point out, and he knew by the sound of it, they were angry. The cart stopped. An Orc yelled out in frustration "What are you doing here, human?" The woman's reply was flawless, and practiced, "I am not your everyday human, I am a member of the Defias gang, and we oppose any actions of the alliance. Let me go in peace, I have no hatred for the Orcs." The Orcs that had originally spoken said, "If you are a friend of nobody, why do you carry such a heavy cargo?" Again, the reply came as if it was a prepared line, "This cargo only carries the goods that I need to survive." However, the Orc was not convinced. "If you don't mind, will you let us search it?" The reply was cold and harsh, "No, I mind, and if you do search in there, you will regret it." After this remark, he heard the familiar clink of money being exchanged from one hand to another.

The Orc was angry, and muttered something to his comrade and replied, "I understand, the Horde does not want to anger the Defias Gang." There was no reply from the woman, and the cart started up again. After a long pause, Rivendare tried to spark a conversation. He asked, "What is your name?" she replied quickly, "Andrayla." As Rivendare opened his mouth to speak but it was cut off by a sharp, ear-piercing whistle, than a thud, as an arrow landed right beside him. The wood around him splintered, sending sharp chunks of wood, like smaller arrows everywhere.

Several splinters hit Rivendare in the face, launching him backwards in pain. As he reeled upwards and back, he ripped off the cloth that covered the cart's cargo, exposing him to the battle. He caught a quick glance of Orc wolf riders charging the wagon, when his face was shoved down. He promptly heard the screech of an arrow that shot right through where he was sitting up moments ago. Anrdayla snapped harshly, "Get down you idiot!" Turning around, he saw Andrayla clutching a knife in one hand, and a bow in the other. She would turn, point the bow, shoot down an Orc, and then slash another off of his horse. Although she was shedding blood and viciously fighting, it was a graceful and practiced style of fighting that she enacted. His gaze was interrupted when she tossed a sword at him. He caught the hint, and started slashing Orcs.

After killing a few, one Orc approached, riding a huge wolf with bared fangs that oozed out saliva. The wolf howled in a blood-curdling scream that chilled Rivendare to the bone. The Wolf's rider was in a furious bloodlust, and began throwing axes. Even though the axes were heavy, they were thrown like toothpicks. Each one would shatter the cart as it hit. However, with every miss, the Orc became more furious, and launched his Axes with a frenzied pace. Although large amounts of axes had been thrown, he never seemed to run out. Andrayla was constantly firing a barrage of arrows at the Rider, but every arrow only intensified his rage. The Wolf drew nearer and nearer, and Rivendare felt his doom approaching with every inch of ground that the Orc gained. As he came within jumping range of the cart, the Rider stood up on his mount and stiffened his legs as if ready to jump. Rivendare and Andrayla flinched as the Orc grabbed an enormous hammer from his back and swung at the cart's wheels, knocking them off and stopping the car suddenly, which launched Rivendare and Andrayla into the air. Landing on the side of the road, next to Andrayla, Rivendare grabbed his sacred hammer and braced himself for combat.


	3. Chapter 3

Rivendare looked around, with no sign of the Rider around him anywhere he continued to glance around nervously. Not a sight or sound, the area around Rivendare and Andrayla was safe, the Wolf Rider had mysteriously disappeared. With the area clear around him, Rivendare turned to Andrayla, who was unconscious on the ground beside him. He removed her mask, allowing himself to get a long glance at her. She had long, silky black hair that came down to her shoulders, and a lovely face that had a warming glow to it.

Rivendare then set about setting up some sort of camp. Grabbing pieces of the cloth that covered him and pieces of wood that had been a part of the framework in the wagon he managed to set up a basic tent. After taking care of the tent, he went to work on the fire. Grabbing stones from nearby, and using his hammer to smash the cart into smaller pieces of wood, he built a fire. The supplies that survived the crash were piled up around the camp. As he finished his work, he was startled when he suddenly heard a voice pierce through the silence. "DAMNED ORCS! THEY STOLE IT!" Spinning around towards the direction of the voice, he noticed Andrayla in a fury, stomping the remnants of the cart.

Not wanting to be on the receiving end of such a rage, Rivendare decided to go hunting. Grabbing his rifle, he set out searching for a deer to kill for dinner. Finding a path, Rivendare began his search. The trees in the area were thick, and the fact that the sun was beginning to set was not helping at all. Rivendare was unable to see anything in front of him, let alone a deer. Cursing the forest, Rivendare decided to go back to the camp, and hope that Andrayla had some sort of meal prepared for the two of them. Wandering along the ever-darkening path, Rivendare took a wrong turn, and came to a clearing that was unfamiliar.

A clearing that held two figures standing around talking. The first figure spoke in the guttural voice of an Orc. The other had a fair and beautiful tone, matching that of a human female. The Orc spoke first, "I was able to claim the Shadow Orb milady." After this, the Orc reached into his cloak and pulled out a glowing black object, the very color of which seemed to devour the light around it. The woman snatched the item from the Orc and stared at it for a while before stuffing into her cloak. She excitedly said, "Excellent, I never believed that this would be so easy. Was there any casualties?" The Orc announced, "Eight Riders were killed attempting to capture it, but the puny cart was no match for me." A harsh tone followed, "That many? You fools must have attacked far too soon. Complete surprise would have had the cart destroyed moments after the attack began."

After hearing this, the Orc stepped back, seeming shocked by the comment, he replied, "Milady, the caravan put up quite a fight, our plan was executed perfectly, don't blame my riders!" The woman's reply was accusing, "Did you slaughter all of those who opposed you?" At this, the Orc hastily replied, "N-n-no, we could not locate them after we broke down their cart." A furious reply came, "Then you have failed me! The people are no doubt nearby, search for them and come back with something, or consider your life in peril." A hasty and nervous answer came from the Orc, "Y-y-yes m-milady."

The Orc ran into the woods in an opposite direction, and the woman walked calmly away. Rivendare, shocked sprinted back through the woods, paying no mind to the path, he ran as fast as he could, hoping to make it back to the camp before the Orcs descended upon Andrayla and him. Rushing through the forest, some unknown force seemed to guide Rivendare's actions, leading him back to the camp. Returning to the camp, he stopped abruptly at Andrayla, summarizing everything that he had overheard. Andrayla stared at him the entire time, her facial expression unchanging, as if Rivendare was only confirming knowledge of hers. After finishing his story, Rivendare ordered Andrayla to grab her weapons, and prepare to fight. When she came back with her bow and swords, a piercing howl came from nearby. The riders had returned.


	4. Chapter 4

Rivendare frantically turned left, right, left again, but still could not see any of the riders that he knew were nearby. Trying to keep calm, he knew his Paladin training had prepared him for fierce combat, but it did not stop this fear of the unknown. Struggling to control the urge to break down and cry, Rivendare continued looking around, spinning about suddenly with the slightest sound.

He practically jumped 3 feet when Andrayla tapped him on the shoulder. "Keep calm, they're not going to sneak up that easily." She told him in an assuring tone. "Just remember, they're going to come up on their wolves, so you'll need to knock them off first." Andrayla crept forward, and then looked around. Suddenly she unsheathed her knives, and slipped out of sight. A long silence followed, and was broken with the deep sound of one of the Orc's battle horn.

Rivendare barely had enough time to get into a battle stance before the first rider broke through the darkness and into the light of the torches. Reacting quickly, Rivendare jumped up and smashed the Orc in the face with his hammer, launching him from the wolf and ending his life. The wolf fled and soon two more riders came out of the darkness. Rivendare finished one off with a holy spell, while he knocked out the other with a hammer of justice, smashing the Orc with his real hammer, as the Orc lay unconscious on the ground.

Spinning around quickly, he saw five riders converging on him. As he braced himself for the worst, Andrayla suddenly came out of nowhere and jumped at one of the riders. Quickly stabbing him in the back with her daggers, she pushed off of his body and flew at another Orc, slicing his head clean off. Then she kicked him off the wolf, and steered it in between two other Orcs, throwing at dagger at each one of their faces, killing them instantly. She then jumped and landed on the last Orc's wolf, quickly unsheathing another dagger and stabbing it into his throat before jumping off the wolf and landing next to Rivendare.

As the dust settled, it took a few moments, and a moment of staring for him to fully take in the feat he had just seen. A nearby howl shook Rivendare out of this dazed state. He quickly identified the howl as the main wolf rider's wolf. It was a howl that chilled you to the bone, and pierced your ears, almost like a weapon of some sort. Although he heard the howl, and knew where it was, he could not see the wolf or the rider.

They were still out in the blackness of the night, but he could hear the pounding of the wolf's paws as it treaded slowly towards him. As it came ever closer, he started to hear it growling, and he prepared himself for the worst. Soon enough, the wolf came out of the shadows, and into the light of the torches. It was massive, standing at around 6 feet off the ground, and its length must have been as much as three or four times that. And it was coming closer and closer. It got so close that he could see the drool dripping from its mouth. It was oddly colored, with a green sort of tint, almost the color of the ichor used on the undead he had fought so many times. Rivendare stood there, with a look of horror on his face, until the unexpected happened. The wolf began to swagger in its steps, slowing down until it came crashing to the ground, throwing its rider off. Seizing the opportunity, Rivendare ran at the Orc and smashed his face with a smash of his blessed hammer.

He then turned to the dead wolf, which had Andrayla standing next to it, laughing uncontrollably. Rivendare angrily blurted out, "What the hell is so funny?" Struggling to regain her composure, Andrayla said, "The expression that you made when you saw that wolf!" Unable to laugh at himself, Rivendare snapped back, "You would have done the same thing if you were in my position!" Still chuckling, Andrayla replied, "Not exactly! After all, I saved you from the wolf with my poison."

Rivendare was still mad, nonetheless and he stormed off to make a campfire. Andrayla yelled at him as he ran, "Hey, I'm sorry I made fun of you!" But Rivendare did not care, he could only think about how close he had come to dying, and how it was just a joke to Andrayla. After he made the fire, he sat there for a long time, thinking. It wasn't until the fire had burnt down to a few charred logs that he snapped out of his trance.

Getting up to grab another log, he practically smashed headfirst into Andrayla, sending them both reeling backwards. A quick, "excuse me" was muttered by both of them, and as Rivendare walked towards the logs he had collected earlier, Andrayla turned to him and said, "Hey, I'm really sorry about the wolf, could you please forgive me?" Rivendare turned slowly to face her. She was blushing, with her head down, her long black hair covering her eyes. He walked over to her, held her chin up and calmly replied, "Sure, I can." She looked at him, smiled and blushed, then she moved forward and they kissed. When they parted lips, they took a long gaze at each other. Andrayla walked over to her tent poked her head out and winked and motioned at him to come in.


	5. Chapter 5

As Rivendare woke up the next morning, he could feel a cool breeze drifting through the loose flaps of the tent. Somewhere in the distance a bird sang its morning melody, and next to him he could feel the warmth of Andrayla's body. Her arms held against him and he felt her chest rise and fall as she breathed in and out. He felt secure in this environment, as if this was his eternal paradise.

He looked over and saw that she was opening her eyes slowly, but with a smile on her face. No words needed to be said, just a simple gaze in each other's eyes explained everything. They sat there for quite some time just looking at each other, until Rivendare got up to make the preparations for the long walk they had ahead of them.

Grabbing the map, he attempted to find where they were. It took him sometime to find out that they were. Rivendare found out that they were in the Redridge Mountains, somewhere past the Blackrock camp that he assumed they had to pass through. In the distance, a massive tower loomed in the distance, it was quite obvious that this was the Tower of Ilgalar. He had heard stories of the evil man who dwelled there, how his army of Gnolls had almost destroyed the town of Lakeshire with the help of the Blackrock Orcs. Somewhere in there, he still lived and plotted, but that was another story.

Rivendare set his bearings as somewhere between the Orc Encampment and the Tower, which gave them around a day of travel to reach Lakeshire. After planning out a route for the trip, which would safely divert them from the Orc Encampment while still allowing them to reach Lakeshire by foot, Rivendare began to make packs to carry their provisions.

As he began to pack, Andrayla walked over and grabbed the map. She looked over it for a few seconds then quickly said, "This won't work at all." Rivendare quickly dropped the pan he was tying onto one of the sacks and spun around to face her, sputtering out, "What do you mean?" She replied with a assertive manner, "The Orcs will be guarding this road with all sorts of guards and patrols. This is too obvious, I have a far better plan." Coming back defensively, Rivendare sarcastically said, "Oh, and what might that be?" Grabbing the map, she pointed out a line from where they were to an abandoned lumber mill. Looking at it quickly, Rivendare blurted out the obvious, "But that old thing has been abandoned for years!" Andrayla assuredly said, "Do you know why it was abandoned?" Seeing that she was going somewhere, Rivendare looked down and sighed before saying, "No." Andrayla smiled as she joyfully announced, "The Defias gang made it abandoned, it's used as part of our tunnel network to get around the Stormwind patrols. That is where we will go to avoid those stupid Orcs."

She then smiled again as she said, "C'mon, grab some breakfast, I cooked a deer that I caught this morning." Rivendare dutifully obliged, as he had not eaten anything since midday yesterday. Even though the Deer had no spices, he devoured it without thinking, such was the intensity of his hunger. After they finished their meals, they set out on the road towards the Lumber Mill, unsure of what would happen.


	6. Chapter 6

The path was long, littered with examples of the war that had blazed across the landscape not so long ago. Large craters, examples of the devastation that Dwarven cannons could rain down on opposing forces were strewn across the landscape. Skeletons with bits of flesh still clinging to them lay all around the road. Some of them with weapons protruding from them, their metal glimmering in the sun. Catapults, broken into pieces that seemed to form some sort of line, giving a glimpse of what the fighting could have been like. Shields with symbols of the alliance showed where soldiers had dropped their shield and fled.

Along the way, Rivendare was only able to count twenty or so, a testament to the bravery and training that the soldiers received these days. Able to stand tall against the greatest foe was a must for any soldier of the Alliance. Rivendare had been taught that when he had enlisted in the Army of Stormwind, and it was a principle he stuck by.

They were close the lumber mill now, the path forking into a valley that housed the lumber mill. It was very aged, webs covering a large part of its rotten wood. Andrayla walked over to a torch that was covered in cobwebs, prying them off with one of her daggers. Taking a match from her pocket, she lit the torch and set fire to some webs that were guarding a staircase.

She looked towards Rivendare and motioned for him to wait where he was. She then walked down the staircase, disappearing for a few minutes. As Rivendare sat there, he took in the age of the place, seeing rusted saw blades, collapsed beams, and stone floors that had moss clinging to it. Yes, this must have been abandoned after it lost its practicality in the Second War. Either that, or the Defias had done a great job on making the place look the part.

Andrayla came back up the stairs now, but with someone else this time, a man she introduced as John. He didn't speak at all, and motioned them down the stairs. He grabbed another torch and used the flame from Andrayla's torch to light his own. Opening a metallic door, he led them into a passageway.

It was dark and smelled like the earth, but they pressed on, nearing the end, which had a similar door to the exit, they stepped into at first glance was a windowless wooden structure with an all wooden door. Pushing it open, they stepped outside, and John waved goodbye.

Looking back, Rivendare saw that it was a tree that they had exited from. The path put them on one side of a massive lake that gave the town its name. Looking up, Rivendare saw that the sun was beginning to be covered by dark stormy clouds. They set out towards the main road that lead towards a bridge that they could barely see from the hill they were on. As the sky grew ever darker, Rivendare dreaded the thought of the rain that he knew would come.

As they got to the main road, it suddenly broke into a heavy downpour. Andrayla laughed and they both began to run across the bridge. When they got to the end, they followed a sign to the Inn.

Entering the Inn completely soaked, they were greeted by a woman who smiled as she said, "Welcome to the Lakeshire Inn, home of the best fish in all of Azeroth! Can I get you anything?" Andrayla seemed much more cheery when she said, "Yes, a room please." The woman told us to wait one moment, and she disappeared for a few minutes, before coming back with a key, which she handed to Andrayla and told her it was up the stairs, and the second room on the left. She smiled and told us good night and waved. They hurried into their room, beginning to remove their soaked clothes. Rivendare finished taking off the last of his clothes, and looked over to the bed. Andrayla was sitting on her side, giving him a peculiar stare and motioning at him to come to bed.


End file.
